asil Wolverton, my father (who I will
respectfully refer to as Wolverton
throughout this book), was a unique
cartoonist and illustrator, known for
his extreme, otherworldly creatures,
spaghetti-like hair, smoothly sculpted faces and
figures and insanely detailed pen-and-ink work.
Born in Oregon in 1909, Wolverton pitched his
first comic strip to a syndicate at the age of 16. But
it was 13 years later before he would sell his first
comic features to the new media of comic books.
âDisk-Eyes the Detectiveâ and âSpacehawksâ were
published in 1938 in Circus Comics. in 1940,
âSpacehawkâ (a different and improved feature)
made its debut in Target Comics. It would run for
30 episodes (262 pages) until 1942. âPowerhouse
Pepper,â Wolvertonâs most successful humor comic
book feature was published in Timely, Marvel and
Humorama publications from 1942 through 1952
(76 episodes, 539 pages). Wolverton penned many
other features to produce a total of some 1,300
comic book pages. in 1946 he earned first prize for
his rendition of lower Slobbovia's ugliest woman,
Lena the Hyena. The contest, part of Al Cappâs
âLi'l Abnerâ newspaper strip, was judged by no
less than Boris Karloff, Frank Sinatra and Salvador
Dali. It won Wolverton fame (or notoriety), and
moved his career into the mainstream spotlight for
a few years, with features and caricatures appearing
in Life and Pageant magazines. At the peak of
his style in the early 1950s, he produced what
many regard as his best comic art in 17 episodes of
horror and science fiction, while, in the same general
time period, creating incredibly outrageous
work for the early MAD magazine.

Yet about this time, Wolverton was also
embarking on a body of biblical and religious
works that would occupy most of his efforts for
the next two decades. The artwork in this volume
includes nearly all of these illustrations â more
than 700 â created by Basil Wolverton for the
Worldwide Church of God and Ambassador
College corporations, from the years 1953 through
1974.

As longtime aficionados of Basil Wolverton
are aware, he was somewhat of a paradox. On one
hand he was a Christian minister â gentle, humble,
generous to a fault â morally and socially
conservative â always ready with a word of
encouragement or humor. On the other hand, he
created some of the most terrifying religious art
since Hieronymus Bosch. And much of
Wolverton's bizarre, frenetic secular work wasn't
any less shocking. Like Bosch (an excellent cartoonist
himself), the key to understanding
Wolverton is an understanding of his religious
convictions. The threads of Wolverton's creativity
and faith are inextricably woven together.

Wolverton was born in 1909 in Central Point,
Oregon (near Medford) to parents who had come
from Maine and new Brunswick to settle in
Sunnyvale, near San Francisco. Not long after the
earthquake of 1906, they moved to southern
Oregon. His father tried his hand at various jobs
and businesses (railroad construction foreman,
sign painter, sheep rancher), some more successful
than others. When Wolverton was about ten
years of age, his family finally settled in Vancouver,
Washington, just north of Portland, Oregon.
Wolvertonâs parents were devout Christians and
they raised their children accordingly. Yet in the
mid-1920s when Wolverton was in high school,
his parents separated and his older sister died
unexpectedly. Wolverton became disillusioned
with religion. He would remain an agnostic (even
atheist) for the next 12â14 yearsâuntil he
encountered Herbert W. Armstrong.

Armstrong was a Chicago advertising and
marketing man who had experienced an economic
downturn in the early 1920s. Armstrong had
moved his family to Oregon, in search of greener
pastures. There, he joined a group of seventh-day
sabbatarians, and his personal studies led him to
believe that the Anglo-Saxon people were part of
the descendants of the "Lost Ten Tribes of the
House of Israel." A high-school dropout with no
formal theological education, Armstrong thought
he had discovered the lost key to all biblical
prophecy, and that the Great Tribulation spoken
of in the book of Revelation would shortly fall on
the United States and the nations of the British
Commonwealth.

Not unlike many evangelical preachers of the
early 1930s, Armstrong adopted a dispensationalist
paradigm, with a with a pre-millennialist,
literal interpretation of the apocalyptic sections of
scripture â albeit with his own particular spin.
The Bible, he taught, predicted imminent worldwide
calamities, followed by the return of Christ
and a happy Millennium, followed by the destruction
of the wicked, followed by the advent of new
heavens and earth.

As he launched his ministry in Eugene,
Oregon, Armstrong believed that God had chosen
him to bring a warning message to the world â
that he was the only true messenger of God in this
age. To proclaim his message, Armstrong began a
radio program, The World Tomorrow, and a magazine,
The Plain Truth (both launched in 1934). As
Armstrong's following grew, so did the threat of a
second world war. He believed this was itâthe
Beast, the Antichrist, and the whole end-time
enchilada.

While Armstrong was by all accounts a pioneer
in religious broadcasting, his theology was regarded
as heretical by most Christians â not so much
because of his end-time prophetic constructs, but
because of his requirement that believers observe
selected Old Testament laws and regulations
(including the seventh-day sabbath, Hebrew festivals
and dietary practices) and his assertion that
humans could become God.

in the late 1930s, young cartoonist Basil
Wolverton was in the habit of surfing the radio as
he worked on âDisk-Eyes the Detectiveâ and
âSpacehawks.â Armstrong's radio broadcast
caught his attention. Wolverton wanted nothing
to do with religion, but Armstrongâs newscasterlike
speaking style, devoid of churchy language,
both challenged and appealed to Wolverton. He
was not equipped to see the problematic aspects
of Armstrongâs theology and worldview. Beginning
in early 1940, he corresponded with Armstrong,
initially disputing his assertions about the existence
of God. But ultimately, over a period of a
year or two, Wolverton bought into Armstrongâs
theology and was baptized by Armstrong in the
Columbia River in 1941. Coincidentally,
Wolvertonâs estranged father had also been corresponding
with and contributing to Armstrong,
but Wolverton did not find this out until later.

As Armstrong got to know Wolverton and his
wife Honor, he saw an energetic, young, professional
couple who could help him with his
mission. He ordained Wolverton an elder in 1943
and not long afterward appointed him to the
board of his Radio Church of God (later known as
Worldwide Church of God, or WCG). Although
Armstrong would have liked even more involvement
from Wolverton, these were Wolvertonâs
most productive comic book years, with
âPowerhouse Pepper,â âBingbang Buster,â âMystic
Moot and His Magic Snoot,â âCulture Cornerâ
and many other features.

When Armstrong moved his growing operation
to Pasadena, California in 1946 to establish
his Ambassador College, he relied on Wolverton
to pastor a small congregation in the Portland
area. This was the same year Wolverton won the
âLena the Hyenaâ contest. As the 1950s began,
Wolverton found himself preaching on the weekends
while creating his horror and science fiction
comic masterpiece stories, such as âBrain-Bats of
Venusâ and âThe Eye of Doomâ during the rest of
the week.

In all this, Wolverton saw no conflict. One
realm was religious and the other secular. He
believed religious people needed to lighten up
and not take themselves so seriously. He also saw
that the biblical account was full of conflict,
pathos, tragedy, violence, bloodshed and horror.
It was, after all, a story of humanity â and in this
way, Wolvertonâs comic horror work and his grotesquely
humorous drawings were consistent with
his theological understanding of the human condition.
His faith gave him hope, to be sure, but he
did not view the current world optimistically.
Dispensational theology in general, and that of
Armstrong specifically, views human beings as
fallen and destined to grow worse as time goes on,
until the return of Christ.

As early as 1942 Armstrong had suggested to
Wolverton that the comic industry would soon
decline â that Wolverton would be wise not to
rely on comics for his livelihood. He encouraged
Wolverton to pursue his biblical studies. With
Armstrongâs publishing and broadcasting efforts
expanding, he was preparing Wolverton for more
active involvement.

But Wolvertonâs involvement in Armstrongâs
publishing efforts would not come for another
decade. His first major project for Armstrong was
a series of illustrations based on the book of
Revelation. Most of these Apocalyptic illustrations
originally appeared in Plain Truth magazine
later reprinted in two booklets, 1975 in Prophecy
and The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last, as
well as other church publications. These illustrations
appear in Part 7 of this volume, and they
arguably include Wolvertonâs finest serious work.

Wolverton working on The Bible Story at Spirit Lake, WA, circa 1967.

The second body of work commissioned by
Armstrong was far larger, and comprises the first
six parts of this volume â The Bible Story. The
first mention in print of this project is in a letter
from Herbert Armstrong to Wolverton dated July
1950. Another letter from 1952 discusses the idea
of a Bible narrative done completely in comic
strip format. The two men certainly had other
discussions as to the nature of the project, which
continued to evolve. Throughout 1953, Wolverton
records in his journal that he is working on a
âNoahâs Arkâ story, which apparently included the
creation account. The project as it was originally
conceived consisted of large illustrations with
captions which carried the story.

But the âNoahâs Arkâ project was delayed
because of temporary financial difficulties in the
church. During that delay, the project morphed
into a much larger, text-intensive project â one
that would provide a sort of popularized Bible
commentary for the historical narrative portions
of the Old Testament. Armstrong also realized
this could become an attractive serialized feature
in his magazine. In 1957, Wolverton was commissioned
to proceed on a full story of the Old
Testament accompanied by illustrations, as
opposed to the earlier concept.

The story was finally rolled out in the
november 1958 issue of Plain Truth magazine. it
continued in every issue through chapter 133,
until December 1969. With the launch of
Tomorrowâs World magazine in January of 1970, it
was felt that The Bible Story (now renamed The
Story of Man) was more suitable for this publication.
Plain Truth was being positioned as a
magazine of world news, social issues and science
versus religion, and Tomorrowâs World carried
more Biblical content. Serialization in Tomorrowâs
World continued until chapter 156 in April 1972,
ending with the âhandwriting on the wall,â presaging
the fall of Babylon.

in 1961, Armstrong had decided to bind the
serialized Bible Story into volumes. These original
six volumes (1961 thorough 1968) were distrubuted
to WCG members around the time of
the churchâs spring or fall festivals, to encourage
generous offerings.

From the beginning, both Wolverton and
Armstrong sought to create a story that followed
the Biblical account more accurately than childrenâs
Bible story books on the market in the
1950s. Most of these books, following a sentimental
tradition that had developed in the 19th century,
laundered the narrative into something suitable
and non-frightening for children. Wolverton did
not want his story to seem religious, sanctimonious
or churchy. He wanted it to come across as a
straightforward account, with edgy, challenging
illustrations. He hoped that his product would be
read by secular types and well as religious. The
Biblical account of Noahâs flood, for instance, was
popularly portrayed with cute animals, a big boat
and a kindly old man. The Biblical narrative, by
contrast, is a disaster story of cataclysmic proportions,
in which millions of people and animals
violently die. Wolvertonâs challenge was to portray
the biblical accounts accurately without traumatizing
children too much. Yet from his background in
comics, he understood that children actually enjoy
a certain amount of violence (how it effects them
is another topic). In this way he was a pioneer for
later comic artists, beginning in the 1970s, who
would bring a more realistic interpretation to
graphic renditions of the Bible.

In the second bound edition of The Bible Story,
however, editors deleted the illustration of drowning
people clawing at the ark (page 37), to avoid
complaints from worried parents. several other
drawings that were not included for similar reasons
are mild by todayâs standards. Wolverton
received numerous letters over the years complaining
about the horror and violence in his
version of the Bible, but he never backed down
from his position that the Old Testament needed
to be depicted for what it was.

Wolvertonâs working method for The Bible
Story was similar to that which he had developed
over decades of working in comics. He would
become familiar with the scripture passages, read
relevant commentaries and other works, and
sometimes consult his associates in Pasadena for
historical questions. Then he would write a first
draft by hand in his characteristic block lettering
style. Later, either he or his wife would type pages
for mailing to Pasadena. His clipboard with drafts
in progress always accompanied him on vacations
and camping trips. For illustrations, he would
select two or three scenes from each chapter.
Often skipping roughs, he would pencil the image
onto his Strathmore bristol and ink it. He preferred
to rise at about 7 a.m., interspersing his work
with household chores such as mowing the lawn,
spading the garden or running errands. Most of his
work was accomplished late at night, often until 1
or 2 a.m. The small black and white television in
his studio was always on â tuned to daytime soap
operas, old movies, boxing matches or Friday
night professional wrestling. He would stop work
from Friday sundown through Saturday sundown,
as he observed the Saturday sabbath (he did not
have a problem with watching professional wrestling
or boxing during that time, however).

Because he spent long hours on The Bible Story
and other work for the church, he felt comfortable
taking an occasional few days to work on freelance
projects for clients such as MAD, Cracked, Plop!,
and Topps Chewing Gum. Wolverton commented
that these projects were a kind of dessert for him
after days of working on the comparatively serious
work of The Bible Story.

Armstrong by Wolverton, 1962.

Armstrong wanted Wolverton to move to
Pasadena. He offered to ordain him an evangelist
(the top ministerial rank in WCG, under
Armstrong) and give him an office and secretary.
Wolverton considered the move, pondering the
idea of a home in Tarzana, in the San Fernando
valley, a comfortable distance from church headquarters.
But ultimately he declined the offer for
three reasons: 1) The idea of an office, a secretary
and wearing a suit and tie every day did not appeal
to Wolverton, 2) He didnât like the hot climate.
He preferred the Northwest and its proximity to
forests, water and fishing, 3) He had deep roots in
Vancouver, with family and many friends living
there. During the 1940s, a move to New York
would have furthered his career in the comic
industry â but he chose to remain in Vancouver.

Meanwhile in the â50s and â60s the growing
WCG was becoming increasingly institutionalized
and legalistic. Members who dissented with
church teaching or authority were subject to being
âdisfellowshippedâ and shunned.

In this environment, Wolverton was somewhat
of an anomaly. In contrast to the strict church culture,
Wolverton put people at ease with his
self-effacing humor and off-the-wall wit. He was
admired and sought out for his balance and wisdom.
If this was too "liberal" for any of the more
officious ministers, Wolverton was generally
immune from their criticism because of his friendship
with Armstrong. In the early â60s, for
example, when Wolverton was editor of the local
WCG congregational newspaper in Portland, he
ran caricatures of leading ministers, including
Herbert Armstrong, complete with mildly satirical
text. Only indirectly did he hear of any of his
targets being upset.

in the early â50s, Armstrong and his son
Garner Ted invited Wolverton to contribute his
outrageous cartooning style to the college publications.
Part 8 of this volume includes these and
all of Wolvertonâs cartoons for various church and
college publications. These are nearly as delightful
as his best humorous work for any secular
publication.

It is worthy to note that in spite of all the
WCG rules, regulations and discipline of the â50s
and â60s, there were good times to be had.
Armstrongâs teachings did not ban the use of alcohol
(in moderation), dancing, card playing and
other recreational activities forbidden by many
fundamentalist groups. Both Wolverton and his
wife, Honor, loved to entertain, enjoyed good
food and good friends (in and out of the church)
and led a very active social life.

Wolverton circa 1969.

By the time Wolverton had finished the Old
Testament, the plan was to condense the story
and republish it in six new volumes. In 1972,
having finished the writing of The Bible Story,
Wolverton set about revising and condensing the
story toward that end, but a stroke ended his work
in 1974, and it was not until 1982 that the revised
blue-covered six volumes of The Bible Story were
published (some art was not included for space
reasons â and some because it was deemed too
grotesque or violent). This version included all
the material up to the fall of Babylon. For reasons
unknown, the final chapters Wolverton had written â
through the book of Nehemiah â were not
included. The art for these chapters is published
in this volume for the first time.

Why didn't Wolverton continue the story
through the New Testament? He could have â
and was probably up for the task, but Armstrong
felt it was a violation of the second Commandment
to picture Jesus in any form. A New Testament
story would have comprised a narrative of the
Gospels and the book of Acts, incorporating some
historical inferences from the Epistles. Of course
Wolverton had already done some of his best
illustrations based on the book of Revelation. But
there were no plans for the rest of the New
Testament and a stroke in 1974 ended Wolvertonâs
ability to work.

The â70s were tumultuous times for the WCG,
with various scandals and defections of ministers.
Because of this (and â70s culture in general) there
was a certain slackening from the harsh days of
the â50s and â60s â a change which Wolverton
welcomed. Wolverton died in 1978, and did not
live to see the profound doctrinal and cutural
reforms of the church which eventually followed
Armstrongâs death in 1986. While Wolverton
would have been saddened by the loss of his friend
and benefactor Herbert Armstrong, he would
likely have embraced the reforms in his church â as
his wife and family did.

As art historians will attest, many of the
worldâs outstanding creative endeavors have been
driven by unorthodox worldviews, whether one
agrees with the worldviews or not. The collaboration
of Wolverton and Armstrong is an example of
this. Had Armstrong not developed his peculiar
theology, and had Wolverton not accepted it, we
would not have the incredible body of work contained
in this volume.